This post was submitted by Ivy Tech student and ASB participant Jamie H.

So the last couple of days have been crazy! On Wednesday we went to the local elementary school to observe the students in their classrooms. First we got to have recess with the children, and of course we were rock stars as all the children wanted to have us on their team. We played some for of tag, and after the game was finished the children would gather in a circle and do breathing and stretching exercises.

Being in the class was really neat as well. I have never seen such organized chaos. Of course it didn’t help that we were in room either. The children kept getting up and asking us to write on papers and sign our names. They, in turn, would draw us pictures and giggle at us. I think that we got to see some form of patriotism, the only phrase that I definitely understood was “an independent nation.” It was fascinating to watch the children as they did a short presentation (I think just for us) where some of the lines were memorized, others read from a folder, but that all of them would chime-in in perfect time together with the independent nation.

There were several obvious differences between this class and the American classroom. First of all the building itself was not in good repair. Some of the windows were broken, the desks were tiny, and all of the books that the children were using appeared to be about 6-7 years old. They were worn and tattered, much like the rest of the building. On the walls were various articles about hygiene, math, reading, books and other information, but the most out of place for me was the article about the woman who went to jail for robbery in the center. This was bittersweet for me. I didn’t understand the relevance until later in the day, but we will get to that later. Overall I enjoyed the school. My only wish was that I could have stayed for the math lesson, since math is the same in every country!

Later in the day we went to see another family that was in need. As a group we were looking for another service project to do, since the one that we have already completed was so successful. So there are about six kids that hang out outside the house here always asking for chips, or candy, or cokes, pretty much anything that has sugar in it. As it turns out, they are all related and the seven of them (including mom) all live in a room that is about the size of my living room. My living room is about 10 by 20 so that you can have a frame of reference. In this room you will find the most horrendous living conditions that any one single human being will or could ever endure in you life. There are two rooms. One serves as a sleeping domicile for the entire family. There is only one mattress and then there are several blankets on the floor for the children. The rest of the dwelling is a single room with poorly laid concrete floors. There are three walls. One made of aluminum roofing sheets which are on the side where the single bedroom is forming a short hallway. Two of them are basically sticks and scraps of wood being held together with chicken wire, and the front wall is a blue tarp, tied to the corners of the building.

There is a single couch and a wood burning stove (made of concrete and large stones) that is not properly ventilated. There is an aluminum wash tub made into a make-shift ventilation system. Smoke billows out from the stove and dances up and out of the cracks between the ceilings and walls. There was also a baby in this house. It was resting peacefully in a sheet that had been tied to the support beams with grass strings. The baby lays in this room and breathes a healthy dose of smoke every day! The family bathroom was located outside. If it would even really qualify as a building is still up in the air. It’s a room with a toilet that sits on a concrete base. No running water, no plumbing, just a hole in the ground with a toilet atop, and some buckets of water to wash with. I have never seen poverty like this in my life.

The beams of this structure are small trees that have been stripped of bark and nailed and wired into place. I don’t think that any structural engineer would ever be able to make a building like this and have it be free standing. The ceiling is covered in thick, black cinder like soot. The clothes are filthy and laying all over the place. The dishes were covered in filth. Prisoners of war are treated better I think.

So in an effort to assist this family, the only thing that we could do was help them fix the bathroom. So today we built a wall for the bathroom. We washed all of her clothes and did her dishes. I tried to help soften some of the machismo-ism here by letting the boys watch me wash the dishes in the river. It was a start.

There is so much more that I could write about right now, but I realize that I’m taking up a lot of space, and this already is so long. I will post some things on myspace for those of you who will be interested to read more.

~Jamie